The Inter-Ministerial Coordination Group for Brexit Led by State Secretary Ružička Meets to Discuss Information Platform for the Public and the Business Community

The Inter-Ministerial Coordination Group for Brexit Led by State Secretary Ružička Meets to Discuss Information Platform for the Public and the Business Community

17.12.2018 | Aktivity štátnych tajomníkov | BREXIT

Today (17 December), František Ružička, State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs led the last meeting of this year of the Inter-Ministerial Coordination Group for Brexit at the level of state secretaries.

As part of the regular information sharing on the developments of Brexit negotiations, State Secretary Ružička summed up the results of the December meeting of the EU Council. Despite the approaching date of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, there are various scenarios in place. Therefore, the leaders at the summit called upon the European Commission and the member states to start with preparations for various options, including that of the hard Brexit. For Slovakia, this means that the individual ministries should prepare a plan of legislative and non-legislative contingency and bridging measures. The goal of these measures will be to minimize the impact of the UK’s withdrawal without an agreement on affected citizens and sectors of the economy. Also in this context, the establishment of the Information Platform on Brexit Impact Scenarios is one of the adopted measures (www.mzv.sk/europske-zalezitosti/brexit). State Secretary Ružička drew attention to the fact that “it is a continuous process which will call for regular updates in a clear and comprehensible form, which will serve, first and foremost, our general public and companies which will be vitally affected by Brexit. Our goal is, in close cooperation with other ministries, to answer whatever questions might arise, as the situation unravels.” Another theme of the discussion was the issue of the residential rights of the British citizens in the Slovak Republic; in this area, co-ordination on a reciprocal basis is assumed. In case of a hard Brexit, both countries would guarantee the maintaining of residential rights as well as social and health care benefits which are legally provided for currently and would extend these to those foreign nationals who have come and will come to the country prior to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, that is, prior to 29 March 2019.